Welcome to your weekly roundup of UK and Irish escape room news covering everything this site has discovered in the last week.
Apologies that we skipped last week – I was out of the country and decided a bumper December issue was a perfect start to the Christmas season.
Before we go any further, it’s time to say farewell to the exexitgames.co.uk blog. As you might have guessed from the name, the mind behind that blog is the same one that used to run this site until I took over about 18 months ago. Chris has finally decided to hang up the keyboard so it’s a great opportunity to shout a big thank you for all the hard work he did to nurture the first few years of escape rooms in the UK. Thanks Chris and enjoy your retirement!
This site is always on the look-out for new games or venues that are opening, references in the media or anything else that might be of interest to the readers, so please do send an email if you spot anything of interest. That applies to owners too – feel free to send me your news for inclusion here. Don’t be shy!
On to the news
- National
- Stuck for a birthday card for your escaping friends? Well, Puzzle Card is a new business looking to solve your dilemma – they’ve just launched their first card and more are on their way.
- Part board game, part computer game, VAP Games have just launched Escape the Casino. At £40 it’s at the higher end of board game escape rooms (and very high end of computer games) but they claim to have innovatively fused the two worlds together.
- Pablo’s Armchair Treasure Hunt might appeal to many of the people who follow this blog. It starts in mid-December and has a physical prize, if you’re good enough to reach the end before anyone else…
- North West England
- The Escape Hotel launched in Morecambe last month with three rooms – Room 301, Room 302 and Room 303. It looks like they’ll be setting up shop one day a month at a hotel in Morecambe with the three games running in parallel.
- Scotland
- Christmas Room is opening at Locked In Escape Room in Glasgow.
- South East England
- I’m starting to see planning applications from Escape Hunt – this time in Reading. Expect a big surge in openings early next year if the planning applications anything to go by.
- Other World Escapes, in Southampton, opened Vermillion a couple of weeks ago.
- Burgess Town Council are funding a series of children events next summer including an escape room style experience.
- South West England
- U-Escape in Bournemouth opened Santa’s Lost His List
- Parallax is opening at Locked in a Room Bristol
- North East England
- Cluedini Darlington is opening this week with Blitz coming over from their other site and being joined by Sleuth
- Northern Ireland
- Titanic – the Final Hour is opening at Timescape in Belfast
- Ireland
- Hell Escape opened in Dublin with three games – Hell Escape, No. 24 and Mysterious Thief
- West Midlands
- Experimental Escape of Leamington have opened their first room, Machine, and were mentioned in an article in their local paper.
- London
- Plenty of news for London this week – first up a new actor-led escape room in Bethnal Green. Inkwell Investigations launched with a single game, Murder History, and a suggestion that more will follow in the new year.
- Meanwhile, No Escape London, open their doors right in the heart of the city a few feet away from Escape Land. Escape the Dentist looks set to launch on 1 January next year.
- Agent November opened Christmas Crisis
- Komnata London looks like it will be launching in the not too distant future. They’re a Russian brand with venues in several countries already. Looks like four games will be heading to these shores including the well-respected and adult-oriented 7 Sinful Pleasures (Room Escape Artist reviewed the NY version if you want to know more)
- East Midlands
- letsxcape are a new company launching in Newark on Trent in 2018 but to warm up the prospective customers, they’re running a series of small outdoor hunts.
- It’s getting pretty close to opening and so it’s no surprise to see a news article on Escapologic‘s new venue in Leicester.
- Wales
- Adventure Rooms Cardiff opened Mafia
- East of England
- Chelmsford Escape Rooms opened The Governor
- Escape Peterborough (Priestgate Vaults) opened Buried Alive
- Blog posts
- Ex Exit Games
- The Logic Escapes Me
- Escape Reviewers
- To Clue Or Not To Clue
- Escape the Review
- Exit: The Forbidden Castle
- Exit: The Forgotten Island
- Exit: The Polar Station
- Escape The Crate: Chapter 5: Escape the Lost Colony
- Skurrilum: Die Phantominsel (The Phantom Island)
- Skurrilum: Malvinis Vermachtnis (Malvini’s Legacy)
- Twisted Rooms: Der Angriff (The Attack)
- Fluchtweg: Voyager 2076
- Porto Exit Games: Lost Memories
- Porto Exit Games: Port Wine Sabotage
- Lock Us Up
- Immersophenia
- Brit of an Escape Habit
That’s all I’m aware of. If any of the above is incorrect or if you’re aware of other news, significant discounts or competitions, then let me know via email or in the comments below and I’ll include updates in the next edition.
Thanks for reading!